The judgement of facial expressions by depressed patients, their partners and controls.
BACKGROUND
Research has shown that cognitive and interpersonal processes play significant roles in depression development and maintenance. Depressed patients judgments of emotions displayed in facial expressions, as well as those of their partners, allow for better understanding of these processes.


METHODS
In this study, twenty major depression outpatients, their partners and control persons (matched on the sex and age of the partner) judged facial expressions as to the emotions they felt were portrayed, at the patients outpatient admission. It was expected that the patients would judge the facial expression more negatively and less positively than their partners and that the partners would judge more negatively and less positively than the controls.


RESULTS
It was found that while both the patients and partners judged less positive emotions than the controls, the patients and partners did not judge the expressions differently. A trend in the same direction was found between the three groups as to judgment of negative emotions.


CONCLUSIONS
These findings are related back to interpersonal and cognitive theories of depression.


CONCLUSIONS
A limitation of this study was the somewhat small patient population available for study.


CONCLUSIONS
This study helps to shed light on the similarity between interpersonal and cognitive processes of depressed patients and their partners.
Hale
W W
WW
Academic Hospital Groningen, Department of Biological Psychiatry, The Netherlands. bill.hale@asci.iaf.nl
Jansen
J H
JH
Bouhuys
A L
AL
van den Hoofdakker
R H
RH
D000328:Adult; D000553:Ambulatory Care; D003071:Cognition; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D004644:Emotions; D005149:Facial Expression; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D007600:Judgment; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D012938:Social Perception; D018454:Spouses / Q000523:psychology*